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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


On the road

Posting this weekend shall be very light. Today, Saturday, I was underground all day on a survey project in a cave north of Tucson. Tomorrow I will be underground again, taking a caver’s tour of the mines in Tombstone, Arizona.

Will be back full force I think on Monday, though I might end up on the road again that day for different reasons. I figure I will post for sure late Sunday.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Cotour

    Q: Are you choosing to clear each post yourself or is there still a program problem with the program that allows you to not have to clear each post personally?

    I ask because I have noticed that posters are not able, under what appears to be this new system, to interact as directly as before which causes the conversation threads to be very shallow. I know that you have your subject and trolling dislikes and standards but it seems to have caused a dilution of the intensity of the conversation here.

    I remember not long ago participating in a conversation thread that was about 62 comments deep. Now, if there are two or three comments that seems to be a lot.

  • The problem with spam and comments on BtB is about to be solved at last. I found a new software guy, who is in the process of cleaning up and upgrading the website. For the past four months in order to make the spam situation manageable, I have had to close comments on any posts after three weeks. This is one reasons the threads no longer last as long.

    We should have these fixes ready in about a week, when we will switch to them. The website will then change somewhat, but not radically. At that time, comments will hopefully return to what they were before. There will be one change which also should not hinder commenters significantly, and will likely improve things greatly. I will no longer have to approve each comment, but before a comment is accepted the commenter will have to fill out a Captcha box. This is not very hard, and will prevent spam from reaching the site.

  • Cotour

    Thanks for explaining. You must have had quite a time investment clearing all the comments in the last four months, a hat tip to you, you seem to be a busy man besides the web site.

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